Micromachined fabrication of Si cantilevers with Schottky diodes integrated in the tip

Modern applications of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) frequently demand the simultaneous measurement of surface topography and another physical quantity of interest. In this paper we present a scanning force microscopy (SFM) probe fabricated from Si with a Schottky diode integrated in the probe tip itself. The diode enables these probes to be used for more than topography imaging. Due to the thermal, optical and electrical properties of the nonlinear I-V curve the probes can be additionally applied in scanning thermal microscopy (SThM), scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) and high-frequency scanning electrical force microscopy (HFSEFM). The probes have been completely fabricated by micromachining including the integration of the Ti-Si Schottky diodes. Fabrication was varied to produce two types of probes: one with miniaturized Ti-Si contact and the other with larger contact area, but with an optical aperture in the Ti layer at the tip. The probes have been electrically, thermally, and optically characterized.